KARACHI, Oct 31: The stock market finished the week on a listless note as investors failed to find any positive cue from the visit of Shaukat Tareen to the KSE and crucial meeting with its officials on the issue of the floor and the proposed market support fund.

But a leading stock analyst Hasnain Asghar Ali claimed some positive developments on the market support fund of Rs20 billion which may be in operation shortly and was expected to absorb a good bit of the float.

However, the KSE sources said details of the meeting would be released to the media late in the evening, which give a fair idea of the decisions on these issues.

“The removal of the floor under the KSE 100-share index is essentially linked to the liquidity problems and high rates on the CFS counter,” he said, adding “once the funds are around the current lower levels could attract any amount of support aiming at massive capital gains”.

Another leading analyst Ahsan Mehanti was, however, a bit optimistic about a deal with the IMF for $5 billion sans the increase in the interest rates and predicted that the market could derive strength from some of the positive background news.

On the trading floor some positive developments were witnessed after several lean sessions as both the market capital and the number of shares which came in for trading were on the higher side.

The market capital, which had been on the decline since Aug 27, showed a modest rise of Rs107m, reflecting a change in the investor strategy, which could well prove a prelude to market’s better performance by the next week.

Barring the KSE all-share index which showed a fresh fractional rise of 0.40 points at 6,638.96, all other indices remained static at the previous level, the benchmark 100-share at 9,182.88 points.

Quarterly working results pouring in each session were on the higher side and reflected that despite massive load-shedding and interruptions in operations, the current year may not be that bad as being speculated, floor brokers said.

A 100 per cent second cash interim dividend by Wyeth Pakistan was on the higher side of the market perceptions and so was 14 per cent by Paramount Modaraba and five per cent by Habib Bank Modaraba.

Trading volume showed a modest increase at 0.224m shares from the previous 0.111m shares as gainers held a modest lead over the losers at four to two, with 15 shares holding onto the last levels.

Dar-es-Salaam Textiles led the list of actives, up Re1 at Rs4.50 on 68,000 shares followed by Sitara Energy, after rising by Re1 at Rs20.50, ended unchanged at Rs19.50 on 36,500 shares, Standarad Chartered Modaraba, static at Rs8.60 on 31,500 shares, J.S. & Co, unchanged at Rs96.67 on 25,000 shares, Gharibwal Cement, up by 70 paisa at Rs17.99 on 20,000 shares, Tri-Star Power, static at Rs164 on 19,000 shares and Habib-ADM, higher by 35 paisa at Rs8.99 on 8,000 shares.

Arif Habib Bank followed them, static at Rs10.85 on 4,000 shares, Kohinoor Mills, lower 61 paisa at Rs15.25 on 2,000 shares and Shifa International, unchanged at Rs20.05 also on 2,000 shares.

CLEARED LIST: No share came in for trading on this counter due to some technical problems.

DEFAULTER COMPANIES: Shares of four companies, Glamour Textiles, Mukhtar Textiles, Indus Polyester and Zeal-Pak Cement came in for modest support at the overnight levels and were quoted unchanged.